Indiana Jones and the Kanto Connection
by PikachuGunner
Summary: Indiana Jones, four years after his quest for the Holy Grail, receives an encrypted letter from a mysterious "Gold", sending him on a whirlwind adventure through the Pokemon world with a ragtag group to keep Team Rocket from getting their hands on an ancient, powerful artifact. Inspired by a "Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Generator" suggestion, and a quest to make it not terrible.
1. Chapter 1

I was on "The Terrible Crossover Fanfiction Idea Generator", chuckling at the ludicrous suggestions, when I got this one:

Your challenge is to write crossover fanfiction combining Indiana Jones and Pokemon. The story should use same-sex relationships as a plot device!

I paused, stared at it for a moment, and said to myself:

"Challenge accepted."

"And that concludes today's lecture on ancient Mesopotamian architecture. Any further questions?" Dr. Henry Jones ended his lesson as the class period was about to end. No going past the bell this time. The silence was enough to give him an answer. "I guess not." he muttered more quietly. The bell rang, and the students left the classroom rather quickly. It always seemed the same in his classes, no student interaction. The days seemed droll and boring much of the time, but then, this was his job. Not every day he could be 'Indiana' and go on a globe-trotting adventure, he was usually Henry, the college professor. It had been a few years since his last big adventure, teaming up with his father in a search for the Holy Grail. The year was 1942, four years since then, and Dr. Jones' adventurous side had been aching for a voyage, though so far, he hadn't gotten any leads on any potential archaeological discoveries. Even a vague first step to something would be a nice thing to have, he was sure he could figure something out if he had anything at all.

After an uneventful trip home, he stepped through the door, almost missing an envelope that had been pushed under the door. It wasn't mailed to him, there were only names on the envelope. On the front was written 'To Dr. Henry 'Indiana' Jones'. In the corner where a return address should be, there was only 'From 'Gold''. "Gold...?" he muttered to himself. He thought it could be a trap, or just a prank, but his curiosity got to him, he opening up the envelope. There was a singular piece of paper inside, filled only with strange hieroglyphs. Though, only strange looking in appearance, they still looked like letters. Random letters. Unless they were in code, they didn't seem to mean anything.

Part of Henry really wanted it to mean something, though. He wanted to be 'Indiana' Jones again, he wanted another adventure. For someone who'd done as much as he had, four years only teaching college classes on what his field work was about on the slow days was maddening, frustrating. Unfulfilling. Besides, the way the message was encoded seemed somehow familiar to him.

Wait a minute. There was another piece of paper inside the envelope. On the this piece of paper, it read "First Roman, Straight Count, Crimson Deliverer, BK NI MY DX EV TJ CR QZ US AG" The last part, that was familiar. Plugboard settings for an Enigma Machine. First Roman...an Enigma I? An encoded message in an unaddressed envelope? This was just getting more and more strange. He looked at the encoded message on the paper. Aside from looking like hieroglyphs, they seemed to resemble English letters pretty closely.

"HIC MQ CZWQG, R WKQLVUJ GOCC QSVF, GGM JBVIWGX VXSP XL JOA AUQO. KV DJRMVCB SZN KCZRBKC JYOAW, UWJ RTVH B KAEDW EJ BJXMV, GFQPA ZGBGT LR S XNZW FQPI PFWETUUP, RZA GL ZVUZUJLN. FXZX KMLS QBCT JKD HVP XC."

He began to think to himself. Knowing it was from an Enigma machine was great and all, but what machine? With what settings? Poring over the piece of paper, Henry thought about what he needed to decypher an Enigma message, at least without full out cracking the message. What rotors are used, where the rotors start, and how the rings are set. A count, the Enigma only used numbers when referring to the rotors. Straight count...I-II-III. Crimson Deliverer...now what did that mean? Crimson, a shade of red. Deliverer...God?

Setting the rotors to RED and the rings to GOD, he typed the message in, getting...a load of gibberish. No, that wasn't right. Wait, there was a method to use a message key in the first three letters. Those came to JUE. He set the rotors to that, typing the message out again. Nothing but garbage. Hmm.

Puzzled now, but determined to figure it out, spent hours trying all kinds of ring settings, with and without the message key method. Nothing, nothing at all. All kinds of ancient gods, or figuring crimson, as in blood, with different ancient conquerors, but nothing.

After hours of this, Henry was about ready for a break. Maybe settling down with a meal and a mug of coffee would sort things out. Midway through his cup of coffee, suddenly, a burst of inspiration. Deliverer, as in, the deliverer of the message! The answer was right in front of him! All those years of hunting ancient religious artifacts got him on the wrong line of thinking. So, Gold, but, how to abbreviate it into three letters? GOL? Probably not. GLD...that seemed closer. Setting the rotors back to RED and the rings to GLD, he started putting in the message...nothing but gibberish. Except the first three letters, which came out to BLU. All colors, what a strange way to encode. Setting the rotors to BLU, he typed in the encoded message, finally getting something that made sense! Well, sort of. It was English, but still cryptic.

"IN KANTO, A MYSTERY WILL WAIT, BUT SHORTLY OPEN IS THE GATE. GO TOWARDS THE MORNING LIGHT, AND FIND A UNITY OF THREE, WHERE THERE IS A WALL WELL TRAVELED, BUT NO BLOCKADE. ONLY THEN WILL YOU SEE ME."

So, the encoded message decoded into a riddle? Now Mr. Jones was getting rather intrigued. Kanto? As in the region of Japan? Or Northeast China? The rest of the message didn't seem like it was talking about either of those places. Towards the morning light, to the east. Now the rest of the message made sense, a meeting place, the only place with a trinity and a wall that was no blockade.

The Big Apple, New York. The Trinity Church, a unity of three, on Wall Street, a wall well traveled with no blockade. Maybe he was leaping to conclusions, he didn't know, he just had to see if there was something, anything. This year had been pretty uneventful, so why not?

For all Henry knew, he could have a journey ahead of him, and that journey could lead him to be 'Indy' once more. Time to ask Marcus Brody for an early summer break. It had been four years, it was about time he went globetrotting again.


	2. Chapter 2

New York, the most populous city in the world. How was he supposed to find one person in this place? Granted, he assumed the meeting place was the Trinity Church, but, well, no matter where you went in New York City, it was crowded.

Who would this 'Gold' be, anyways? Was he just wasting his time here? Would've been nice if they'd put a description into the message. But, then, you couldn't make an Enigma message too long, or the encryption would repeat. Still, would've been really helpful. Or maybe he should be going somewhere less crowded? Would they be inside the church? Or maybe in the churchyard? This could just be some elaborate prank, too, and all this was for nothing. Or a trap. He looked up at the church tower, the skyscrapers, scanning for anyone who might be watching him. Mr. Jones was feeling a little out of place himself, walking around in his normal getup when he was 'Indiana'. The fedora wasn't exactly out of place, but the leather jacket and safari shirt probably were. There was also the gas mask bag, whip, and revolver, but those were out of sight, for obvious reasons.

Soon enough, he found himself heading over to the churchyard. Graves...lots of graves. As soon as he walked in, he heard a voice behind him.

"Hah, eerie, isn't it? That feeling."

Indy was rather startled, turning around. "What?"

If Indy didn't fit in...well, this kid certainly didn't at all. A red jacket, a black baseball cap with a yellow stripe down the middle, hiding his eyes, wearing a large bag on his back, a pair of black pants, and red and white tennis shoes. Most unusual, though, was the red and white ball he was carrying, and the device on his wrist. Certainly wasn't a wristwatch. He was casually leaning against the wall by the entrance. "Kind of like the tower in Lavender Town. You can almost...feel them."

Indy was a bit confused, to say the least. This teenager, who didn't fit in with anyone else here at all, talking about places he'd never heard of. "Kid, what are you talking about?"

"Ah, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself." he turned his cap around backwards, also revealing a pair of yellow-rimmed goggles situated on his hat. "Name's Ethan, but you can call me Gold. Best Pokemon trainer there is!" he said, in an overly dramatic voice, like he felt like he had to announce it to the world.

First thoughts Indy had, this kid had to be tweaking. Maybe not in those words, but, Pokemon trainer? What was he talking about? He shook his head. "Whatever you're on, you should stop before...wait, Gold?" Was this really the person he was supposed to be looking for? Apparently the way to find Gold was to look for the most out of place person possible. Should he really be getting himself involved in this?

"That's me, Mr. Jones. Or should I call you 'Indy'?" Ethan asked with a chuckle. Well, if someone was looking for him, it would make sense that they knew his name already.

"Indy's fine. So, what does a kid like you need with an archeologist, Ethan?"

"Hey, it's Gold. Unless you want me to call you Henry." he smirked a little.

Indy groaned a little. "Okay, Gold. What are you, sixteen?"

"Yeah, actually. What about it?"

"Why would you need someone like me?" Indy asked, find it rather odd that a teenager would go to all this trouble to contact him.

"Oh, you're going to love this. Now, where do you think this place is?"

"You mean Kanto? Most likely Japan, possibly China."

"So you did get the message, good." he chuckled a little. Testing him...so at least he was halfway intelligent.

"Pretty cryptic message, isn't it?"

"Tell me about it, had to find a primitive way to encrypt it. Had to make sure it was really you, after all."

Indy balked slightly at that. "Primitive? You're running your message through an Enigma machine. Where does a kid like you get your hands on that?"

Gold tapped the device on his wrist. "I didn't...this little thing took care of that."

If Indy hadn't been puzzled before, he certainly was now. "That's an Enigma machine?"

"What? Please, it's a portable computer." he opened it up. "Now, to tell you about this Kanto region. You see, you'd be wrong if you thought Japan or China, it's-"

Indy spoke up. "Hold on a minute. You're telling me you have an entire computer? On your wrist?" he asked, now in sheer disbelief. Keep in mind, this is 1942. Your best computers would be things like the Z3, and even that was a top secret German project. A digital computer the size of a room that ran on punched film that was really only a machine made for calculations.

"Well...yeah. It's not exactly that powerful, but back to what I was saying, this place isn't like anything you've seen before." he opened up the device on his wrist. Not that powerful? Then what was? There was a strange symbol on the hinge. Silph Co's logo. Not that Indy would have any chance of knowing that. He started pulling up some pictures of strange creatures. Very strange creatures, resembling ferrets, dogs, cats, bugs, and some that just defied description. Another thing that defied description was how this wrist computer was pulling up images like this. "I suppose you could say it's similar to Japan, but things are way different. It's hard to describe, but, main difference is, we have these creatures called Pokemon, and people like me, Pokemon Trainers, use Pokeballs to capture and tame them. There's a bunch of other things, but...we'll get to those as we go." Gold was talking rather excitedly. He wasn't really thinking about the fact that the technology was obviously way different, too.

"This...doesn't make any sense. Where did you say this was?" Indy said, confused. He was starting to become more and more sure this kid was high, or delusional. But, then, he had a computer more advanced than anything that existed here. On his wrist. Somehow. "And how exactly am I involved in this at all?"

"Kanto, it's one of the regions of our world, basically a chain of islands."

"Your world?"

"Hah, did I say world? Feels like it sometimes, we're usually pretty isolated."

"What makes you different?"

"Ahah, well..." he hesitated a little. "Legally, I'm not supposed to be here." he shook his head a little. "But that's not the point! We need more help than we've got there!"

"You sound like quite a troublemaker."

"You know it!"

Indy sighed. This kid was going to be a handful, he could tell already. "So, why are you so eager to get me on board?"

"Because this sounds like the kind of thing you're good at! Me, along with several other people, have heard word that Team Rocket's after an artifact, the staff of this Aura Guardian named Sir Aaron." Gold scrolled over to a picture of him. Well, not a picture. A painting, so, artist's rendition. Another guy who would stand out in a crowd. Dark blue hair, a black and blue hat with a strange gold symbol on it, black cloak, with blue and gray robes...and a rather interesting set of gloves and staff. The inserts of the gloves and staff were crystalline, the crystal on the staff surrounded by horizontal and vertical curved pieces of metal, a couple of metallic adornments hanging off the side.

"Who is this Team Rocket?" Indy asked. Yet more names he didn't know. He was wondering if Gold just had a really overactive imagination. Not to mention this Sir Aaron...Aura Guardian. "You do realize I have no clue what you're talking about with this Aura Guardian nonsense, right?"

"Well, Team Rocket is this nasty bunch of thugs. Organized crime syndicate. Oak or Max or someone can tell you more about Sir Aaron and the lore behind that, they're the nerds. Anyway, I heard a bunch of awesome things about you and your adventures, so I figured you'd be perfect to help us out!"

Indy shook his head a little bit. "You do know I'm only well-versed in history here, right? What do you expect me to be able to do...wherever you are? I haven't heard about any of this before."

Gold closed the device, chuckling a bit. "Oh, come on, Indy. You're curious, aren't you? You went to the trouble of decrypting my message. You traveled all this way. You obviously have some interest in this, right?"

Indy looked at Gold quizzically. "How do I know this isn't just some really elaborate joke?" he asked, really not sure what to think of this. The way Gold stood out, the things he was doing already, it was crazy, but this nonsense he was spouting out seemed even crazier.

Gold smirked a little, tossing his Pokeball slightly into the air, catching it again, casually leaning against the wall as he did so. "Well, I can show you some proof, but this...probably isn't the best place for that. I might attract a lot of unwanted attention. Think there's a quiet place in the church or something?"

Indy was thinking that Gold was attracting enough attention just looking the way he was, not to mention the way he was talking. "You know what? Sure, maybe there is. What in the world are you showing me?"

"One of these creatures. The way you've been looking at me, it's obvious you don't believe any of this. You think I'm completely crazy."

"Was it that obvious?" Indy replied sarcastically.

"Oh, come on, I know you're eager to go on an adventure, you've only done it how many times before?"

"Doesn't mean I'm not cautious. Besides, haven't exactly gotten a request from a kid before." Were his exploits really so widespread that places he'd never even heard about were telling stories about him now?

Gold shook his head and started walking off. "Just let me show you, Indy."

Indy still looked at Gold like he was nuts. "Fine. I still think you're crazy, though." He figured he might as well see, if he came all this way. Besides...superior physical stature, bullwhip, .45 ACP Smith & Wesson, unless this kid had more people lurking around, he couldn't really do anything to him, right?

Soon enough, Indy and Gold found themselves in a smaller, isolated room of the church. "Okay, so what is this thing? That yellow mouse thing or something like that?"

Gold chuckled a bit. "Really? A pikachu? If I'm going to show you a Pokemon, I want to show you my best. Don't freak out on me, okay?"

"Freak out?"

"Say hello to Baktaro!" he pressed the button on the ball, it expanding, he tossing it into the air, whipping out a pool cue, hitting the ball off to the side of him, the English applied to the ball making it roll to the side a bit before it opened up in a flash of light, revealing a large, ferret-esque creature, creme fur on its front, dark blue on its back, the ball snapping back into Gold's hand, closed now. Standing on its hind legs, Baktaro stood at a tall five and a half feet. Not as tall as Indy, but he was still taken aback with how massive this creature was. He was readying having to pull out his revolver if it came to that. Those claws, those teeth, they all looked very sharp. Both Indy and Baktaro were staring at each other rather cautiously, Baktaro growling a little.

"Baktaro, don't look at Indy like that." Gold said sternly. Baktaro huffed a bit, smoke coming out of its nose, its back flames flaring slightly. Indy was even more nervous, undoing the holster on the revolver underneath his jacket. This...thing, whatever it was, was producing fire! Gold shook his head, returning Baktaro to its ball. "Sorry, he's a bit protective, but now you know what a typhlosion looks like. Don't worry about him, he'll warm up to you eventually."

Indy scoffed a slight bit, redoing the holster on his revolver. "Really?"

"What?"

Indy folded his arms and looked at Gold, shaking his head.

Gold paused for a moment, then spoke up. "Ohhh, I get it! I didn't mean for that to be a pun. Heheh, that's funny." Indy just rolled his eyes a little before Gold spoke up again. "So, you think we can get your help?"

"So, let me get this straight. We've got a group of people seeking a mystic, dangerous power for themselves through an ancient artifact, and we're trying to find it first so we can stop them?"

"Pretty much sums it up, yeah. Sounded like that kind of thing was right up your alley, but hey, if you don't want to help..." Gold chuckled, starting to walk off.

Boy, that scenario sounded familiar. And, unless he'd been slipped some really insane drugs last time he drank, everything Gold was talking about seemed to be happening. Not to mention this was an all new place he was talking about. As dangerous as it could be, it was intriguing. "Hey, wait a minute!"

"Ahh, so you are interested." Gold looked back with a smirk. "Well, then, what are we waiting for?"

"How did you get here, anyways?" Indy asked. He really didn't know how a kid like him would get to New York from...wherever he came from. Especially if he wasn't legally allowed to.

"Oh, you'll see. Prepare for another first, Indiana Jones." Gold said with a grin. Oh, dear. Indy was starting to wonder what he was getting himself into this time.


	3. Chapter 3

As Indiana Jones and Gold walked along a sidewalk close to the coasts of New York, Gold continued to get strange looks. Well, he never stopped getting strange looks the entire time he'd been there, really.

"You'd think if you had all this information about me, you'd take the trouble to blend in a little more." Indy observed.

"If I blended in, you'd never have believed me. You'd have thought I was some crazy kid with an overactive imagination." Gold laughed a bit.

"I still did. Still kind of do." Indy paused for a moment. "Exactly where are you headed, anyways?"

"We're going back to Pallet Town. I need to talk to Oak and-"

"No, I mean, where are you headed here? If you're looking for the port, you're headed the wrong way."

"The port? That'd be way too crowded." Gold responded, chuckling a little. "I got my own ride here."

"How was it you got here, again?" Indy really did wonder how Gold got to New York from...wherever he was from, especially without some sort of public transit. After all, Gold wasn't old enough to drive, much less fly. Maybe he could be sailing or driving a motorboat around, but he was heading away from the port. Maybe he had a boat stashed elsewhere?

"You'll see, Indy." Gold snickered softly.

Indy looked at Gold skeptically. "You've hardly been able to just outright tell me anything so far."

"Surprises are so much more fun, though! Besides, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"What, did you fly here?"

"No...though that's not a bad idea."

"Are you this vague about everything, or is it just me?"

"Eh, it all depends."

Indy groaned a little bit. "Now you're just doing it on purpose."

Gold chuckled to himself. "All right, all right, cool your jets, you'll see soon enough." he started walking onto a small, wooden dock, looking like it was meant for small fishing vessels, more than anything else. At the end sat a rather sad looking vessel. A dull, dark blue, rusty looking motorboat, with a rather dinky motor, to boot.

Indy looked at this is a bit of disbelief. Not the amazed kind, either. "You're kidding me, right?"

"What?"

"This is your unbelievable mode of transportation?" Indy said, shaking his head. It was unbelievable, all right. Hard to believe it was still floating.

"Heh, things aren't always how they seem, Indy." Gold said, climbing into the boat.

"You're telling me this thing has enough gas to get wherever you're going?"

"Gas?"

"You know? Gasoline? Petrol? Fuel?"

Gold just started laughing. "Hahaha! Oh, Indy...where we're going, we don't need fuel."

"What are you talking about?" Indy was starting to become more sure something was wrong with this kid.

"I told you, you'll see! Come on!"

Indy sighed, cautiously stepping into the boat. He'd seen a lot today, but he couldn't tell whether Gold was extraordinary, out of his mind...or maybe both. Gold had been showing him a lot of miraculous things here, but the way he acted still made him seem completely nuts.

Gold pulled the cord on the motor three times and, despite the fact that the motor didn't actually seem to turn over at all, the boat started moving. There was still the distinctive wake of a motorboat, though, but something seemed...well...off about the way the water was moving. After a little while, another wake started to form around them. Not as prominent, but wider. Like...something bigger was moving underneath them. This was making Indy rather uneasy.

"Gold...?"

"Yes?"

"Notice anything odd about our wake?"

Gold looked around, smirking a little to himself. "Not really, no."

Indy groaned. "You don't see the other wake? You don't see something wrong with that?" Indy questioned Gold nervously.

"Oh, I see it." Gold said, not really seeming too concerned.

Indy looked down off the edge of the boat. There was, indeed, a silhouette coming up from the depths below. It looked like a manta ray, coming up closer to the surface. "Mantas don't tend to follow boats around..." he knew something wasn't right here.

Gold looked at Indy curiously. "What's a manta...?"

"A manta ray? It's a marine animal we have here." Indy replied.

Gold started laughing again. "Haha, oh, no, no, that's not a manta at all."

"What're you talking-?"

Indy didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Gold yelled out "Tibo!"

Smaller fish scattered from the underside of the boat as this large manta-like creature breached out from underneath the water, landing with a splash in front of them as the boat slowly came to a stop, these smaller fish gathering underneath this larger creature. Indy found his hand on his revolver again, for what good it might do here.

Gold shook his head. "Indy, come on! This is Tibo, my mantine. He's not going to hurt you. In fact, he's how we're going to get to Kanto. Besides, your revolver's not the solution to every problem." he chuckled.

"It's certainly solved its share of them." Indy replied, taking his hand off the revolver's grip.

Tibo swam closer to the front of the boat, Gold giving him a soft pat over the top of his head as he curiously looked up at Indy. "That's a good boy, Tibo." Gold smiled as Tibo turned to the side, letting Gold climb onto his back via his wide body fins, the pectoral fins, 'wings', if you will, resting on the surface of the water. "Well? Come on, Indiana."

Indy shook his head a little. "First giant fire ferrets, now you're riding around on a manta ray? What in the world are you, some kind of animal whisperer? For freaky animals?"

Gold snickered, taking his turn to shake his head. "Oh, you have no idea. Now then, climb on, Tibo won't bite."

"You're...actually being serious? This is how you got here?"

"Yeah, it's kind of how we travel. Large, fast water pokemon are great for that." Gold responded with a chuckle. "Better than having the remoraids drag us around on the boat."

"You're just leaving the boat out in the ocean?"

"Yeah, that's where I found it. The engine doesn't even work. Figured it would look a little more natural than gliding in on Tibo here."

"So you know how to act natural for once?" Indy replied with a little scoff. Gold certainly hadn't been taking a lot of effort to be natural otherwise. He didn't even seem to take the effort here, really. Sounded like he just happened upon a stranded boat by blind luck.

Gold snickered softly. "Hah, well, soon enough, you'll be the one feeling out of place, Mr. Jones. Now how much longer are you going to keep us waiting?"

Indy shook his head a little, stepping onto Tibo's 'wing', sliding himself onto the mantine's back, a ways behind Gold, his lower legs resting on the bases of the fins spread out across the water.

"Think you can stay on back there?" Gold chuckled, turning his cap backwards, sliding his goggles down over his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Indy replied, a little dismissively. He didn't really think they could get going that fast.

Though, he was about to be proven wrong. "All right, then. Full speed to Pallet Town!" Gold yelled out, Tibo suddenly taking off forwards across the surface of the water, leaving a large wake behind him. In this wake were the smaller disturbances of many jets of water.

Indy was taken quite by surprise, he barely holding onto Tibo's body, his shoes gripping a little into the pectoral fins. "Ahh, Jesus!" Indy yelled, holding onto his hat now that he had his grip, and the initial acceleration that had been threatening to send him flying backwards off of Tibo's back was no longer present. Still had to deal with the air resistance, though.

"What?" Gold looked back at Indy quizzically.

"Never mind...how are we going so fast?" Indy yelled over the sound of the water.

"Well, mantine tend to go fast as it is, but the remoraids attached under Tibo are giving us a boost." Gold yelled back.

"Remoraids?"

"The fish that were making the boat move." Gold replied. So that was how the boat was moving with no motor, then.

Still, Indy was puzzled. He would think a bunch of fish attached to the underside of Tibo would be slowing them down. "How are they making us go faster?"

"Water Gun!"

"What are you talking about now?" Indy looked behind him, seeing the way the water was being disturbed, not just by the large mantine gliding through the water, but the smaller jets, as well. "They shoot water?"

"Yeah, at least that's the gist of it." Gold chuckled. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"This isn't normal for you guys or something?"

"Not this particular method, no! It's great, should only take us a few hours to get there!"

Indy seemed a bit stunned at this. "Um...how fast are we going? Isn't this place out in the middle of the ocean?"

"I don't think you want to know how fast we're going, Indy." Gold laughed a bit, seeming to be enjoying the ride. Indy just held onto Tibo, trying to make sure water turbulence didn't throw him off. Though, for how fast they were going, things were going pretty smoothly. There wasn't really a whole lot for Indy to do for now but wonder what he'd gotten himself into this time.


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a few hours since Indiana Jones and Gold had started traveling towards Kanto, and yet, neither Tibo or the remoraids seemed at all tired.

"No rest for the weary?" Indy asked with a chuckle.

"What?"

"They've been going for hours, you'd think they'd be tired." Indy observed.

"What? Oh, no, they've been through lots of battles, a bit of transit is nothing to them." Gold chuckled a bit. "I told you already, I'm the best trainer there is, so of course my pokemon are the best, too!"

"The best trainer? How many are there?" Indy asked. "No good being the best if there aren't very many."

Gold suddenly burst out laughing. "Hah...ahaha...hahahaha~"

"What?" Indy sounded annoyed as Gold continued to laugh. Was Gold laughing at him?

"Oh, man, that...that's hilarious..." Gold started laughing again for a moment, catching his breath. "Indy, there's trainers running around all over the place in our little region."

Indy looked at Gold, an eyebrow raised. "Let me get this straight. There's a bunch of teenagers...kids running around with supernatural creatures with them? All the time?"

"Lots of people have pokemon with them here, Indy." Gold replied. To him, they didn't seem so much 'supernatural' at all. All a matter of perspective. As they talked, a chain of islands came into view, the first visible landmark being a large, snowy mountain. "Ah, we're getting close, there's Mt. Silver."

"What, is it named after some kid calling himself Silver? Some other trainer?" Indy asked sarcastically.

Gold looked back at Indy, confused. "What? Him? Please. He's pretty good, but not as good as yours truly!"

"So there is a kid calling himself Silver?" Indy snickered a little bit.

"Named Silver, actually."

Indy laughed for a moment. "Hah, good one."

"No, I'm serious."

"Wha-? Someone actually named their kid Silver?"

"Apparently."

Indy buried his face in his hand for a moment. "Why? Naming your child after a color...or metal?"

This whole time, they'd been getting closer to land, Gold pressing his feet against Tibo's wings a little. "All right, time to slow down now, Tibo." he looked off to the side, at a volcanic looking island, with a lone building on it.

"Why is there only a single building there?" Indy asked. It looked like the volcano had erupted some time ago. Years, probably.

"That's the Pokemon Center. Everything else has been gone since the eruption. I still remember hearing about it. Nobody's rebuilt anything since then, that Center was the only thing that didn't get destroyed." he said somberly, then smirked. "Rumor is that was where the cloning experiments took place."

Indy had no clue what Gold was talking about. "Pokemon Center? Cloning? What are you talking about?"

Gold looked forwards as they were slowing down. "Oh, someone needs to tell you about the cloning experiments. As for Pokemon Centers, they're...how do I explain it? Hospitals for pokemon, I guess. Unless it's really serious, they can heal them up really quick. Normal battles, no problem, in and out in a few minutes. Trainers end up spending nights there quite often, too, while they travel."

"How is that paid for?"

"Um..." Gold paused, looking around for a moment. "Hmm...you know, I don't really know, actually."

"Are you serious?"

"Well, I've just never really thought about-"

"Hey!" an unfamiliar voice yelled out.

"What?" Indy and Gold both said in surprise, looking in the direction of the voice. Someone was standing on top of one of the rocks, dressed in a swimmer's cap, goggles...and swim briefs. "Ever heard of swim shorts?" Indy muttered.

This swimmer didn't seem to hear Indy's comment. "I challenge you to a battle!" he yelled out, holding out a red and white ball. A pokeball.

"A battle? Who asks to battle out of the blue like that?" Indy asked.

"Indy, I told you that you'd be feeling out of place. This happens all the time." Gold chuckled, facing the swimmer, still sitting on Tibo nonchalantly. "You sure about that? You know who I am, right?"

"No. Now, come on!" he threw the ball out towards the water, releasing a large, serpentine creature into the water. Blue, scaled, a large mouth with sharp teeth, hostile looking eyes. Indy's eyes widened. This was the biggest one of these creatures he'd seen! It had to be twenty feet long, at least.

Indy spoke, putting extra emphasis on his first word. "Now can I use my revolver, Gold?"

Gold scoffed. "Please, we're not in any real danger."

"What?" Indy yelled, dumbfounded. "Not...real...bu...WHAT?" Now he was sure Gold had to be crazy.

"Please, Tibo can beat that." he turned to the swimmer again. "All right, but I'm in a hurry. One on one. My mantine against your gyarados!" Hearing this, Tibo suddenly looked eager, for some reason.

"Oh, it's on!" the swimmer yelled back.

"Um, Gold-?" Indy started.

"No, we're not going to be on Tibo during the battle. That would be crazy." Gold chuckled a bit. Tibo went towards a nearby rock, Gold walking off onto it, Indy quickly following.

Indy couldn't help but snicker a little.

"What?" Gold wondered what Indy thought was funny.

"You, finally thinking something is crazy. It's amusing."

"Well, we're no pokemon, we don't want to be anywhere near the battle."

Indy paused for a moment. "...what, is there a minimum safe distance for this sort of thing?"

"You'll see why..."

"What in the world do these things do?" Indy asked as Tibo and the gyarados faced each other, staring each other down, the gyarados attempting to intimidate Tibo with a heightened stature. It didn't seem to be working, though.

"Hey, you're the third person here. How about yelling out a countdown for us?" the swimmer yelled over.

"What?"

Gold chuckled. "Yeah, you might as well. You know, third party, no trainer messing with the count."

Indy looked uncomfortable with this prospect. Though, it didn't seem like they'd be moving along until this happened. These two seemed adamant to battle. "Fine..." he shook his head a little, yelling out now. "Three!"

Both pokemon shifted back a little, staring each other down.

"Two!"

The swimmer looked concentrated, whereas Gold certainly looked relaxed, fiddling with a red device, small antenna on top, blue light on the bottom. Not using it, just moving it around in his hand, looking over the two pokemon.

Indy raised his arm up. "One!" Both pokemon stared at each other, looking ready to lunge.

Gold suddenly, though casually, raised his arm up. "Hold that thought..." Gold said to Indy, before shouting again. "Hey!" Both pokemon looked at him, looking irritated.

"Huh...what?" the swimmer looked at Gold. "You chickening out or something?"

"A thousand yen." Gold said, simply.

"Hah, really?"

"I want to make this battle more interesting. Loser pays the winner a thousand yen."

Indy shook his head. "Uh...hate to break it to you, but, let me put it this way; I don't know where he'd be carrying money."

"Eh, they always do." Gold replied back. Indy 'replied' with a little bit of a shudder, though Gold didn't seem to see that, yelling out "You up for it or not?"

The swimmer thought for a moment before yelling back. "All right, then. Prepare to lose your allowance, boy!"

Gold snickered. "Oh, man, he really doesn't know who I am at all. Anyways, go on."

Indy looked at him quizzically before counting down again. "Three!" The pokemon turned towards each other again, looking impatient.

"Two!" The gyarados especially looked ready to lunge already, roaring down at Tibo. Gold turned his cap forward, more for dramatic effect than anything else.

Indy raised his arm up again. "One!" Indy shivered a little, looking at how both pokemon were acting. They were practically staring daggers at each other, the Gyarados almost seeming filled with a sort of bloodlust. Indy felt like he was about to unleash hell. "...go!" he brought his arm down. The gyarados instantly lunged out at Tibo, making a large splash along the water as Tibo dodged out of the way.

"Gyarados, Thunderbolt!" the swimmer yelled out.

Gold let out some kind of nervous groan as lightning shot out from this large creature, hitting Tibo and leaving him rather fazed. "Erk...didn't expect that one..." Gold muttered. Indy was too stunned to speak. These things were shooting lightning now. Next thing he knew, there'd end up being something that could bring the heavens down on someone, Lost Ark of the Covenant style. Still, Tibo shot forward again, moving his wings at such a speed that they slashed into the gyarados, before slamming his head into it, sending it flying into one of the rocks, right next to the swimmer, he jumping back, startled!

"Good to see he's thinking straight after a hit like that. Air Slash and Headbutt."

"Air Slash?"

"Oh, we have names for the different techniques, attacks that different pokemon tend to lean towards. Some people call them out, but I think that's-"

"Hyper beeeeam!" the swimmer yelled out, the gyarados' mouth starting to glow.

Indy snickered. "Over-dramatic?"

"No, tactically unsound." Gold replied, though, then he and Gold both noticed, with the position Tibo happened to be in at the moment, the gyarados charging a Hyper Beam...

"That's pointed-" Gold started.

"-right towards us." Indy finished.

They both looked at each other. "Oh, crap!" they both yelled. Well, Indy yelled something similar in meaning, at least, they both leaping off the rock as the beam shot out, cutting the rock right in two. Gold and Indy both resurfaced, climbing onto the rock halves.

"No real danger, huh?" Indy asked angrily.

"Oh, this fight's done if that missed Tibo." Gold said with a smirk.

"That's not my point!" Indy started to yell before Tibo burst out of the water in front of them, leaping straight into the gyarados with precision, using its body weight to slam it down into the rocks again, swimming quickly around and leaping out of the water again, giving it a precise strike upside the head.

"Take Down and Aerial Ace. Stick a fork in this one, it's done." Gold snickered.

Indy looked over at Gold. "That was a terrible one-liner."

"Eh, I heard it in a game once."

"No! Gyarados, come on!" the swimmer yelled as the gyarados swayed, before falling down over the rocks.

"One! Two! Three!" Gold started counting.

"Come on, that Thunderbolt should've taken that mantine out!" the swimmer yelled as Gold kept counting.

"Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Knock out!" Gold yelled, separating the word 'knockout' in his pronunciation for emphasis, turning his cap back around.

"Grr...damn it!" the swimmer yelled, almost growled out, returning the gyarados to his ball. Tibo glided back over to Gold and Indy, they both climbing on, gliding by the swimmer.

"Hey, at least there's a center right over there." Gold said with a smirk.

"Shut up."

Indy chuckled. "See, that line was so much better than your last one."

Gold looked down at the swimmer. "Now, about that thousand yen you owe me."

"Grr..." the swimmer pulled a device out of the bag in his shoulder. Looked a lot different than Gold's device. It had buttons and ports on the bottom, the device sliding out to activate the screen. Indy could see the words 'Pokedex 5' in small print on the back, along with the same logo that was on both of Gold's devices, the one he was holding and the one on his wrist. Indy assumed now that was the logo of the company that made it. Whoever it was, they sure made a lot of things around here, he knew that much.

He could also see Gold's screen pop up as he turned his device on. His opened up in a couple of places, rather than just sliding out. 'Account Access: First National Bank of Johto' was on-screen, along with an amount, somewhere along the lines of a million yen as a balance. It was a different symbol, like a blocky P with two lines through it, but they called them yen. The extra thousand was shown transferring in, adding to what seemed to be an already good total for Gold, before he closed it. 'Pokedex 2', his said on the back. "And that's what happens when you battle Gold!" he smirked, having Tibo glide along the water again.

"Well, that didn't seem like it went at smoothly as you thought it would." Indy observed.

"Didn't expect him to have taught that thing Thunderbolt. Requires equipment to train the dormant traits for that. Still, it was weak, I knew that already." Gold said calmly.

"You knew? How do you just know?"

"Well, Indy, I've grown up with pokemon my entire life. My house was filled with them, and it's basically what I do for a living now. I made that bet because I could tell it was weak, and he was cocky. Now I know why, but, still."

"So, you're sixteen, out on your own."

"Pretty much. Of my own choice, though. It's been, what, four years now? Time sure flies when you're having fun."

"You've been on your own since you were twelve? You can afford it?"

"Oh, sure. My pokemon take care of anything I can't. As for money, well, in between battles, things I've found lying around thanks to my pokemon, and, you know, lack of rent or a house to pay for, I've done all right." Gold chuckled a little. He'd been on his own since he was twelve? Granted, carrying creatures like that around, maybe you didn't worry so much about typical crimes.

"I have to ask, why yen? Just adopt that from the Japanese?" Indy asked.

"I don't know. I guess." Gold replied, shrugging.

"I expected some weird currency, like, I dunno, woolongs or something." Indy said sarcastically.

"Hmm, you know, that doesn't sound so bad." Gold chuckled, taking on a mock announcer voice. "For this prestigious tournament, the grand prize, three hundred million woolongs!"

Then they slowed down to a stop. They'd reached dry land, at what looked like a very, very small town. Only a few houses and what looked to be a state-of-the-art research lab, and that's for where they were. To Indy, it looked like science fiction.

"Welcome to Pallet Town, we ask that you remain seated until the mantine has come to a complete stop." Gold said with a chuckle.


End file.
